An Assessment Tool for evaluating Social and Emotional Health in Early Childhood

The “Ages and Stages” questionnaire is a survey completed by parents that can be used by early childhood educators to understand the social and emotional capacity of the children in their care. The surveys take between 10 and 15 minutes to complete and 1 to 3 minutes to score. Some of the social emotional competencies assessed in the questionnaire include self-regulation, communication, and adaptive functioning. With the purchase of the scoring manual, early childhood educators can score these questionnaires themselves. Starter kits for this assessment tool, which incorporate a manual and either English or Spanish questionnaires, costs 275 US dollars. There are several questionnaires that educators can rely on to ensure sensitivity to age-specific developmental tendencies for children aged one to five.

The “Ages and Stages” questionnaire was developed by Dr. Diane Bricker and Dr. Jane Squires at University of Oregon’s Centre on Human Development, and is published by Brookes Publishing. Adapted over four decades of use, this tool has been extensively researched, with evidence supporting its efficacy in evaluating social and emotional health in early childhood. For more information regarding this research, visit http://agesandstages.com/products-services/asqse-2/.